Eugene Allen Hackman (January 30, 1930 – c. February 18, 2025) was an American actor. In a career that spanned six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two British Academy Films Awards, and four Golden Globes.

Nominated for five Academy Awards, Hackman won Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in the critically acclaimed thriller The French Connection (1971) and Best Supporting Actor as "Little" Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). His other nominations for Best Supporting Actor came with the films Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and I Never Sang for My Father (1970), with a second Best Actor nomination for Mississippi Burning (1988). Welcome to Mooseport (2004)— was his final film role before retirement. (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Family

• Parents: Eugene Ezra Hackman and Anna Lyda Elizabeth Gray
• Siblings: RIchard Hackman
• Spouse: Faye Maltese (1928-2017) m. 1956, div. 1986
• Children: three - Christopher Allen, Elizabeth Jean, and Leslie Anne Hackman
• Spouse: Betsy Arakawa (1961-2025) m. 1991. Classical pianist.

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Life

Eugene Allen Hackman[1][2][3] was born in San Bernardino, California, US, the son of Eugene Ezra Hackman and Anna Lyda Elizabeth (née Gray).[4] He had a brother named Richard. Hackman had Pennsylvania Dutch, English, and Scottish ancestry. His mother was born in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.[5] Hackman's family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother, Beatrice.[6] His father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local newspaper. Hackman decided that he wanted to become an actor at age 10.[7] His parents divorced when he was 13 and his father subsequently left the family.[8][9]

Hackman lived briefly in Storm Lake, Iowa, and spent his sophomore year at Storm Lake High School.[10] He left home at age 16, lied about his age to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, and served four and a half years as a field-radio operator. Hackman was stationed in China (Qingdao and later in Shanghai). When the Communist Revolution conquered the mainland in 1949, he was assigned to Hawaii and Japan. Following his discharge in 1951,[11] Hackman moved to New York City and had several jobs.[12] His mother died in 1962 as a result of a fire she accidentally started while smoking.[13] He began a study of journalism and television production at the University of Illinois under the G.I. Bill, but left and moved back to California.[14]

Career

1956–1969: Career beginnings

In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career. He joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California,[12] where he befriended another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman.[12] Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were voted "The Least Likely To Succeed",[15][12] and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given.[16] Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman moved to New York City. A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing NYC apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s.[17][18]

To support himself between acting jobs, Hackman was working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant[19] when he encountered an instructor from the Pasadena Playhouse, who said that his job proved that Hackman "wouldn't amount to anything".[20] A Marine officer who saw him as a doorman said "Hackman, you're a sorry son of a bitch". Rejection motivated Hackman, who said:

It was more psychological warfare, because I wasn't going to let those fuckers get me down. I insisted with myself that I would continue to do whatever it took to get a job. It was like me against them, and in some way, unfortunately, I still feel that way. But I think if you're really interested in acting there is a part of you that relishes the struggle. It's a narcotic in the way that you are trained to do this work and nobody will let you do it, so you're a little bit nuts. You lie to people, you cheat, you do whatever it takes to get an audition, get a job.[19]

1970–1979: Breakthrough and stardom

Hackman was nominated for a second Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in I Never Sang for My Father (1970). He starred in Doctors' Wives (1971) and The Hunting Party (1971) then won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as New York City Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971), marking his graduation to stardom.[12]

After The French Connection, Hackman starred in ten films (not including his cameo in Young Frankenstein) over the next three years, making him the most prolific actor in Hollywood during that time frame. He followed The French Connection with leading roles in Cisco Pike (1972), Prime Cut (1972), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Scarecrow (1973) alongside Al Pacino, which was Hackman’s favorite role of his career and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival,[29] and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974), which was nominated for several Oscars and also won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes.[12] That same year, Hackman appeared in what would become one of his most famous comedic roles, as Harold the Blind Man in Young Frankenstein.[30] Hackman also appeared in Zandy's Bride (1974) and Night Moves (1975) for director Arthur Penn.[31][32]

1980–1999: Established career and acclaim

Gene is someone who is a very intuitive and instinctive actor ... The brilliance of Gene Hackman is that he can look at a scene and he can cut through to what is necessary, and he does it with extraordinary economy—he's the quintessential movie actor. He's never showy ever, but he's always right on.

Alan Parker, director of Mississippi Burning (1988)[38]

Hackman alternated between leading and supporting roles during the 1980s. He appeared opposite Barbra Streisand in All Night Long (1981) and supported Warren Beatty in Reds (1981). He played the lead in Eureka (1983) and a supporting role in Under Fire (1983). Hackman provided the voice of God in Two of a Kind (1983) and starred in Uncommon Valor (1983), Misunderstood (1984), Twice in a Lifetime (1985), Target (1985) for Arthur Penn, and Power (1986). Between 1985 and 1988, he starred in nine films, making him the busiest actor, alongside Steve Guttenberg.[39]

2000–2004: Final films and retirement

Hackman co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Under Suspicion (2000), Keanu Reeves in The Replacements (2000), Owen Wilson in Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers (2001), and appeared in the David Mamet crime thriller Heist (2001),[47] as an aging professional thief of considerable skill who is forced into one final job. He made a cameo in The Mexican (2001).[48]

Hackman gained much critical acclaim[49] playing against type as the head of an eccentric family in Wes Anderson's comedy film The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.[50] In 2003, he also starred in another John Grisham legal drama, Runaway Jury, at long last getting to make a picture with his long-time friend Dustin Hoffman.[51]

In 2004, Hackman appeared alongside Ray Romano in the comedy Welcome to Mooseport, his final film acting role.[52]

Hackman was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field" in 2003.[53]

On July 7, 2004, Hackman gave a rare interview to Larry King, where he announced that he had no future film projects lined up and believed his acting career was over.[54] In 2008, while promoting his third novel, he confirmed that he had retired from acting.[55] He narrated three episodes of the NFL Films documentary series America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions in 2007.

Speaking on his retirement in 2009, Hackman said:

The straw that broke the camel’s back was actually a stress test that I took in New York. The doctor advised me that my heart wasn’t in the kind of shape that I should be putting it under any stress.[56]

When asked during a GQ magazine interview in 2011 if he would ever come out of retirement to do one more film, he said he might consider it "if I could do it in my own house, maybe, without them disturbing anything and just one or two people."[57] He briefly came out of retirement to narrate two documentaries related to the United States Marine Corps: The Unknown Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima (2016)[58] and We, the Marines (2017).[59]

Writing

Together with undersea archaeologist Daniel Lenihan, Hackman wrote three historical fiction novels: Wake of the Perdido Star (1999),[60] a sea adventure of the 19th century; Justice for None (2004),[61] a Depression-era tale of murder based on a real-life crime in his boyhood town of Danville[62]; and Escape from Andersonville (2008), about a prison escape during the American Civil War.[63] His first solo effort, a story of love and revenge set in the Old West titled Payback at Morning Peak, was released in 2011.[64] His final novel Pursuit, a police thriller, followed in 2013.[65]

Death

Legendary actor, two-time Oscar winner and author Gene Hackman and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday afternoon in their home in the Santa Fe Summit community northeast of the city. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed just after midnight Thursday the couple had died, along with their dog. Mendoza said in an interview Wednesday evening there was no immediate indication of foul play. He did not provide a cause of death or say when the couple might have died.

Source: < santafenewmexican.com >

Gene Hackman Most Likely Died on Feb. 17, Sheriff Says
The Santa Fe County sheriff said the actor’s pacemaker was inspected and last showed activity nine days before his and his wife’s bodies were found.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/gene-hackman-death-investigat...)

Tributes and legacy

Numerous members of the film industry have paid tribute to Hackman since his death. Clint Eastwood wrote in a statement, "There was no finer actor than Gene. Intense and instinctive. Never a false note. He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much". Francis Ford Coppola wrote, "Gene Hackman (was) a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity ... I mourn his loss, and celebrate his existence and contribution."[93] Others who paid tribute include Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Josh Brolin, Nathan Lane, Antonio Banderas, and Hank Azaria.[94][95][96] BAFTA President Prince William also released a statement, which read in part, "Hackman was a true genius of film who brought each and every character to life with power, authenticity and star quality". The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote that Hackman's death "marks the end of one of the greatest periods of U.S. cinema: the American New Wave ... He was the character actor who was really a star; in fact the star of every scene he was in — that tough, wised-up, intelligent, but unhandsome face perpetually on the verge of coolly unconcerned derision, or creased in a heartbreakingly fatherly, pained smile."[97]

Military Service

• Allegiance: United States
• Branch: U.S. Marine Corps
• Service: field-radio operator, 1946–1951
• Rank: Private first class
• Operations: Operation Beleaguer; Occupation of Japan
• Awards: China Service Medal; Navy Occupation Service Medal; National Defense Service Medal

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Sources

• "Gene Hackman." Wikipedia, revision of 11 January 2022. < link > Accessed 20 January 2022.
• Actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa found dead in their New Mexico home, police say by Lex Harvey, CNN Updated 7:55 AM EST, Thu February 27, 2025
• "Gene Hackman, Hollywood’s Consummate Everyman, Dies at 95" < nytimes.com > (By Robert Berkvist, Feb. 27, 2025). The winner of two Oscars, he was hailed for his nuanced performances in films like “The French Connection,” “Unforgiven” and “The Royal Tenenbaums.”
• Glynn, Paul. "Death of Hackman and wife 'suspicious enough' for investigation, police say." BBC, published 27 February 2025. < link > Accessed 1 March 2025.
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Feb 27 2025, 18:21:37 UTC
• Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas and Julia Jacobs. "Gene Hackman Died a Week After His Wife, Both From Natural Causes." New York Times, published 7 March 2025. < link > Accessed 7 March 2025.